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Last week I asked you if it was actually possible that having the buy into the division series might actually be a bad thing. Well unfortunately I didn’t get a lot of comments on that post, but I’m very interested to know what everybody is thinking after the start of the National and American League division series yesterday.

Out of the four-division series that started yesterday three of the four opening games were won by teams that advanced out of the wild card round.

The only team that won a game and got a bye through the wild card round were the Houston Astros who beat the Minnesota Twins 6-4.

In the other three games the Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles 3-2, The Philadelphia Phillies shutout the Atlanta Braves 3-0 and in the final game of the day the Arizona Diamondbacks blew out the Los Angels Dodgers 11-2.

Now it’s just one game and it will take all the teams that won yesterday two more wins to advance to the league championship series, so while they got out of the gate with an advantage these series are nowhere close to being over.

While the first three games of the division series round were close the surprise for me came in the final game of the day.

The Dodgers were one of the favorites to get into and possibly win the World Series while the Diamondbacks are just a young up and coming team that hasn’t shown that they’re affected by the playoff pressure.

The Diamondbacks had a quality starting pitcher going in Merrill Kelly, but his opponent on the mound for the Dodgers was sure to be Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw.

The Dodgers were looked at as the favorite to win last night’s game and the series, but it sure didn’t start off that way.

Ketel Marte started off the game with a double on a ball that probably should’ve been caught and that was the start of a 6-run 1st inning for Arizona. Kershaw lasted just 1/3rd of the 1st inning and was charged with all 6 runs that the Diamondbacks scored.

In his 1/3rd of an inning Kershaw threw 35 pitches. He gave up 6 runs on 6 hits while walking 1 batter. One of the 6 hits Kershaw gave up was a home run to Arizona catcher Gabriel Moreno.

After Kershaw’s early exit the Dodgers used five pitchers to cover the remaining 8 2/3rds innings of the game. As the series goes on will have to see if covering this large amount if innings to start the series has any effect on the Dodgers bullpen.

Today the National League teams are off, so both of the American League divisional series take center stage. Both games will be televised on FS1 with the first game having a start time of 3:07 p.m.

The opening game will again feature the Texas Rangers visiting the Baltimore Orioles. Jordan Montgomery will make the start for the Rangers while Grayson Rodriquez will be the Orioles starting pitcher.

The second American League division series game has the Houston Astros hosting the Minnesota Twins. Framber Valdez will be the Astros starting pitcher today while the Twins are going with Pablo Lopez.

The National League division series re-starts on Monday. Both of the National League divisional series games will be televised on TBS with the first game scheduled to start at 5:07 p.m.

The Braves and the Phillies will be the opening game on Monday. Zach Wheeler will be the starting pitcher for Philadelphia while Max Fried will be the Braves starting pitcher.

In the second National League division series game the Dodgers will try to even their series with the Diamondbacks. Zac Gallen will be making the start for the Diamondbacks while the Dodgers are going with Bobby Miller as their starting pitcher.

So let me know if you think that the time off that the Orioles, Braves and Dodgers had hurt them in the first game of their divisional series match ups.

As always don’t forget to look for me on X@ I’m @Burketime.